Sydney Biennale 2022 “Smelling Rivers” event

With my colleagues Professor Amanda Reichelt Brushett, and Dr Moya Costello, we recently took part in a unique program within the "rīvus" Sydney Biennale this year. One of the participants was a collective called Art For the Commons (A4C), launched by Rosa Jijón and Francesco Martone in 2016. For the Biennale, A4C launched a whole series of linked events, to do with the rights of nature, and the way rivers are given legal personhood around the world, and what this means for social and environmental justice.

We were asked to present a unique event: a workshop and wine tasting, using the language of wine writing to reflect on how we experience the smell of river mud. It was a kind of sensory field trip: we provided participants with an array of sediment samples to smell from all around the Northern Rivers and in particular, the catchment of the Richmond river. These samples had been stored and receiving sunlight for over 15 months and had grown into astounding small ecosystems of their accord. People were asked to write their olfactory impressions of these rich sediments and minerals from across our river country, exploring memory and sense experience, as a new way of thinking about rivers and river systems.

Here are a few images from the event - we held a private event for donors and a ticketed public event as well. We had a blast - the setup at Barangaraoo in the Cutaway was fantastic, with this huge Campari stand.